HYPOCRISY

In a society that is too much about “me”, double standards abound.  Thanks to a variety of medical breakthroughs many people who lived through “the great depression” are still alive today.  They did go on to success.  It’s not that those successful seniors have forgotten their beginnings.  They simply do not want to accept the idea that many others have not been so fortunate.

Then there are those who were fortunate enough to have the skills and talent to rise above the rest of us.  Many of them have earned extraordinary amounts of money.  This group of people is small but seems to be clueless about the fact that they are so lucky.

An example of the clueless is Carly Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard chief executive left that company with a severance package worth an estimated $21 million to $42 million.  Including her severance, she was paid nearly $180 million during her five-year tenure at Hewlett-Packard.

Fiorina bucked the populist tide against lavish corporate salaries by denouncing President Obama’s effort to cap annual pay at $500,000 for leaders of banks taking federal bailout money.

Now this is the hypocrisy (double standard).  After she was forced out of Hewlett-Packard, shareholders sued, claiming that the board of directors should have let shareholders decide her severance.  The Los Angeles Times quotes her as saying, “When somebody makes $40 million a year for failure, we cannot defend that.  On the other hand, I believe the solution should be, every  should be put up for shareholder vote each and every year. Let the shareholders decide.”